PRs don’t target BBC Click: Chris Long

Last Bank Holiday Monday, I was up at BBC TV Centre with Chris Long, Producer for Click, the BBC’s flagship tech TV programme. We were doing some filming for a piece that will be out this coming weekend. I asked Chris how he fared with PRs these days – I’d imagined they’d be queueing at the door to talk to him.

In fact, the reverse seems to be true.

Or at least, the companies who you think would be constantly vying for attention on the show don’t seem to bother with it – and those that are completely irrelevant to the show seem to take up a lot of the Click team’s time.

Says Chris: "When I was editor of PC User I had millions of new best friends pitching every day – now I work on a show that goes out on BBC1, News 24 and around the world on BBC World and we are ignored – bizarre."

Bizarre indeed. Given that there are few dedicated tech outlets on TV these days, you’d have thought Click would have been right up there – admittedly it is aimed at a consumer audience (so ruling out all the enterprise and B-to-B IT outfits), but there are enough consumer focussed vendors to warrant putting some effort into talking to Chris and the team at Click.

Then again, perhaps it leaves the field open to those PRs who know their broadcast onions to take advantage of the apparent apathy of many consumer tech companies towards a major broadcast outlet.

3 Responses to “PRs don’t target BBC Click: Chris Long”

What a pile of old tosh. PR’s certainly do call Chris Long and Click Online – however, whether they choose to engage with the offered stories and ideas is another thing entirely. I’ve dealt with Click for a number of clients over the past few years, and on occassion stories have made it to air.

Click is a programme that is rarely at the forefront of new technologies, for editorial or other reasons. Perhaps PRs, who’s job it is to hype only the latest and greatest, have simply decided to pitch elsewhere?

Chris Long

Oh yes, I remember this – this is on line isn’t it, where everyone’s an expert. And no one reads the message they are commenting to.

I’ll try and help.

To quote Andrew paraphrasing me “the companies who you think would be constantly vying for attention on the show don’t seem to bother with it.”

(Translation) We are a consumer technology show. A lot of PRs that punt consumer technology don’t call. I am surprised.

“and those that are completely irrelevant to the show seem to take up a lot of the Click team’s time”

(Translation) we have lots of PRs that have never seen the show calling us, punting stuff that is irrelevant. I am less surprised.

We are *not* ignored by ALL consumer PRs. Not ALL of the calls are a waste of time. But compared to when I edited PC Magazine, Personal Computer Magazine and PC User we get less calls from the industry. And frankly, I find that bizarre.

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Andrew Smith August 8, 2018

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